When I hear of a remake there is something inside of me that twist and causes pain in my stomach. Why take something that people clearly loved and make it all again but in a modern setting? Just why? You already have a great movie why bother. Most of the time I cannot answer that but I will attempt to justify my score a little bit later. This copy was released in 2004 (there was a hint in the title). Written by James Gunn and directed by Zack Snyder, it stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell, Michael Kelly, Kevin Zegers and Lindy Booth. Produced on a budget of $26m it went on to make $102.3m at the box office which for me is a good return for a movie openly selling itself as a copy of the original. From a critics point of view it was not that well received with IMDb giving it a score of 7.3 out of 10 & Rotten Tomatoes giving a smidge more with 75%. With the usual business cleared up shall we move onto the plot.
Ana Clark finishes her shift in a busy A&E as a nurse, returns home for a special evening with her husband. They miss an emergency news bulletin and wake up the next morning when a neighbour’s girl comes into their home and attacks her husband. He dies and rises again and instantly attacks Ana. She escapes and crashes her car and the movie begins. Waking in her car she meets a cop, a salesman, a petty criminal and his pregnant wife. The group break into a mall where they are attacked by more zombies one of which bites the pregnant girl (Luda). There are three surviving guards in the mall who form a leadership role by taking weapons in exchange for refuge. Taking to the roof they see a guy stranded in a gun shop and form a bond with written messages on boards. A truck carrying other survivors with a bitten dying woman included arrives. The bitten woman, dies as soon as she arrives and comes back to attack again and they deduce that it is transmitted by bites. Luda decides to keep her little nibble secret whilst another bitten member of the group selects to be isolated. Which when he comes back and is killed, confirms the theory. The group starts to break up as they try to maintain an even balance with loaded weapons used against each other rather than on the zombie threat. They find a friendly dog who they use to move items to Andy in a bid to bring him back to them. The whole collapse of the group and the support from Andy taking out random zombies with his weaponry leads to a point where the safety of the mall is compromised and they have to decide to fight and re-secure the mall or make a run for it to find a new safe place.
OK straight off the bat I have to say that my opinion of remakes has not changed on the back of this decision but I have to add that this one is a really good movie. It is a 100 mile an hour romp with a beginning that just jumps out of the screen at you. It starts with a bang and I suggest you take a deep breath before it begins and exhale slowly as this one will take your breath away. It does settle after the opening credits which allows you and the story to catch a breath again. There are elements like the baby scene that for me are completely unnecessary and added points that are not needed as it tries to go too far to impress. It takes the overarching story from the original movie of a group of people holding up in a mall and it does it to a modern world. It brings elements that really add to the story from back when and it is very clever with the dynamic of the group and how they interact with each other. Like the classic original ‘Night’ movie there is a dynamic within the survivors as they don’t get along and have to give and take to be able to survive. Meaning it’s worth- while to allow some give and take and live with some disruption to keep the peace. When the world is coming to end and all you have left is to live then people will have to go to extremes just to still be here the next day. This is really clever movie and works really well so you go and enjoy.
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